Department for Transport

High Speed 2 Railway Line: Railway Stations

Lord Berkeley: To ask Her Majesty's Government for what reasons the estimated cost of the West Midlands HS2 station has increased to £370 million.

Baroness Vere of Norbiton: The Interchange station cost estimate has not increased and remains within the allocated budget, as confirmed when the HS2 project was reset in February 2020 following conclusion of the Oakervee Review and the adoption of an updated cost baseline (Baseline 7.1). At Baseline 7.1 adoption, the point estimate for Interchange station was £274m in Q3 2019 prices. This estimate excluded risk exposure and optional scope. The recently announced figure of £370m is the Baseline 7.1 estimate inflated to Q1 2022 prices (the date of Contract Award) with the addition of its contingency allowance, which is derived from the overall HS2 Ltd risk exposure allowance, also confirmed at Baseline 7.1 adoption. The £370m figure also contains provision for optional scope to maximise and facilitate local development plans around the station. This updated estimate does not affect the overall budget, or contingency, of the HS2 project and station delivery remains within its cost allocation and is proceeding to schedule.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Internet: Safety

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish an online media literacy strategy.

Baroness Barran: The Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper Consultation, published last December, confirmed our commitment to publish an Online Media Literacy Strategy. The Strategy will explore the media literacy landscape and ensure a strategic and coordinated approach to media literacy activity. The Strategy will further help support users with the skill and knowledge they need to make informed and safer choices online.The Strategy will be published later this year.

Night-time Economy: Coronavirus

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are takingto prepare further financial support packages for the night-time entertainment industry affected by COVID-19 restrictions.

Baroness Barran: The Government recognises the severe impact the pandemic has had on the night-time entertainment industry. The Chancellor announced in the 2021 Budget an additional £300 million to support cultural organisations, including businesses in the night industry such as theatres, music venues and nightclubs in England through the Culture Recovery Fund. Nightclubs were eligible for the first and second rounds of Culture Recovery Funding and many organisations were funded, for example, the Ministry of Sound received a grant of almost £1m. To date, over £1.2 billion has been allocated from the Culture Recovery Fund, reaching over 5000 individual organisations and sites.This extra funding means that our total support package for culture during the pandemic is now approaching £2bn. More generally, the Government will spend over £33 billion supporting those in self-employment during this crisis, among the most generous anywhere in the world. The Government has also provided economic wide support packages which the sector has been able to access including extensions to the furlough scheme, SEISS, and additional business support.

Young Audiences Content Fund

Baroness Benjamin: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the cuts of the Young Audiences Content Fund pilot, what steps they are taking to ensure the pilot leads to a secure, well-supported and long-term future for that Fund.

Baroness Benjamin: To ask Her Majesty's Government why cuts were made to the final year of the Young Audiences Content Fund pilot; what assessment they made of (1) the effectiveness of that Fund, and (2) the need to provide notice of any changes to its funding.

Baroness Barran: Following a successful Spending Review, the Young Audiences Content Fund will continue into its third year and receive up to £10.7m for year 3 of the pilot scheme, totalling up to £44.2m for the three years. As set out in the Contestable Fund scoping paper published in 2018, monitoring and evaluation of the Fund would inform the annual budget allocation over the course of the pilot. The 2021/22 funding awarded demonstrates a commitment to the value of children’s television programming in an exceptionally challenging fiscal climate, where some tough decisions have had to be made. DCMS has engaged continuously with the BFI, who administers the Fund, throughout the funding determination. Although assessment of the funds is ongoing, the Year One review sets out a number of successes for the fund. As planned, a detailed evaluation of the scheme, against the criteria set out at launch, will take place this year before a decision is made on whether to close, continue or expand the Contestable Fund.

Football: Gambling

Lord Foster of Bath: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether their fan-led review of football governance will include an assessment of the financial sustainability of banning gambling sponsorship.

Baroness Barran: The Terms of Reference for the fan-led review of football governance have been published and amongst other matters, the review will explore ways of improving the governance, ownership and financial sustainability of clubs in English football, building on the strengths of the football pyramid. While the role of gambling sponsorship currently sits outside the scope of the fan-led review, we launched the Review of the Gambling Act 2005 on 8 December 2020, with the publication of a Call for Evidence. This closed on 31 March 2021 and received approximately 16,000 submissions from a broad range of interested organisations and individuals. As part of the wide scope of that Review, we called for evidence on the benefits or harms of gambling sponsorship arrangements in sports and other areas, and we are considering the evidence carefully.

The Senior Deputy Speaker

Peers: By-elections

Lord Grocott: To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what plans he has to arrange for media access to the counts for by-elections of hereditary peers.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: The Procedure and Privileges Committee agreed on 2 March that the forthcoming hereditary peer by-elections to replace the Earl of Selborne, Lord Denham, Lord Selsdon, the Countess of Mar, Lord Rea and Lord Elton should be carried out using electronic means. Electors will vote using a secure on-line portal. The count will be an electronic process with the manual addition of a small number of postal ballots. There are no plans to allow media access to the count as it is an electronic process. Full details of the results will be available to the media and other interested parties on-line after the result has been announced in the Chamber.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Venezuela: Humanitarian Aid

The Marquess of Lothian: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the current humanitarian situation in Venezuela; and what steps they are taking to contribute to the improvement of the lives of Venezuelan citizens.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: The UK is extremely concerned by the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. Since 2019, HMG has spent £37 million in humanitarian aid in response to the Venezuelan crisis, focusing on health, nutrition, and water and sanitation, both inside Venezuela, and with refugees in countries in the region. Inside Venezuela, our funds have also made an important contribution to childhood vaccinations, and strengthening the capacity of the country to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to the entire population. As a result of the economic contraction, the UK will not be funding new bilateral humanitarian programmes in response to the Venezuela crisis in 2021. Our remaining programmes will end in July 2021 as planned.We will still be spending around £10 billion in Official Development Assistance (ODA) globally, meaning that we will remain one of the largest donor countries in the world. The UK continues to be the largest contributor to the United Nations' Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), and provides considerable funding to other multilateral humanitarian agencies. We are proud to be a founding donor of the Venezuela Humanitarian Fund, which is increasing funding to national NGOs, and are exploring whether we might be able to provide some additional funding to the Venezuela Humanitarian Fund for work inside Venezuela. We will continue to work with others through diplomatic channels in addressing the root causes of the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.

Zimbabwe: Pensions

Lord Goodlad: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had this year with the government of Zimbabwe about pension arrears owed to former Crown servants; and what was the outcome ofthose discussions.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: While we have received repeated assurances from the Government of Zimbabwe that they will resume payment of pensions when the economic situation allows, we remain concerned. The Government of Zimbabwe is facing an array of challenges economically, which have been exacerbated by COVID-19. Regrettably, we therefore do not see these pensions being paid in the near future. We will, however, continue to raise the matter with the Government of Zimbabwe and the UK's Ambassador to Harare raised the issue with senior Ministry of Finance officials on 2 June.

Department of Health and Social Care

Travel: Quarantine

Baroness Randerson: To ask Her Majesty's Government what inspections they are undertaking on the (1) quality, and (2) standards, of accommodation and services provided in hotels contracted to provide quarantine facilities for passengers arriving from countries on the red list during the COVID-19 pandemic; and what steps they are taking tosupervise such hotels to ensure (a) that vulnerable people are protected, and (b) that the regulations on isolation are properly followed in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Lord Bethell: The Department has contracted to provide 24 hours a day, seven days a week liaison officer cover in all managed quarantine hotels. We receive daily reports from the embedded liaison officers for each hotel providing assurance of the facilities provided and ensure any areas of concern are addressed. We also engage with hotels and service providers on a regular basis to monitor the quality and effectiveness of services provided.We have allocated resources to ensure that vulnerable people in quarantine hotels are signposted to the appropriate support and follow safeguarding procedures where appropriate. All hotels have a 24 hours a day, seven days a week security presence and access to an onsite medic. All hotels and security providers assigned to the quarantine service follow our standard operating procedures to ensure that guests remain in a COVID-19 secure environment for the entirety of their stay.

Medical Treatments: Technology

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the discount rates applied to health technology assessments are being included in the review by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence of health technology assessment methods.

Lord Bethell: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is currently reviewing the methods and processes it uses in the development of its technology appraisal and highly specialised technologies recommendations, including the discount rate. NICE expects to consult on a draft programme manual in summer, with implementation of the changes from early 2022.

Medical Treatments: Innovation

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: To ask Her Majesty's Government what date they plan to launch the Innovative Medicines Fund.

Lord Bethell: Proposals for the Innovative Medicines Fund are in development and we expect NHS England and NHS Improvement and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to lead an engagement exercise later this year. A detailed timescale will be confirmed in due course.

Travel: Quarantine

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether staff working in facilitiesbeing used for travel quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic are subject to mandatory, regular tests for COVID-19 infection; and whether such staff are restricted to working only in such facilities during their term of employment.

Lord Bethell: All staff working in managed quarantine facilities are actively encouraged to take a voluntary daily lateral flow device test. Staff are also offered a weekly polymerase chain reaction test. Whilst the tests are optional, the process is COVID-19 compliant, in addition to social distancing measures and procedures. Staff are not restricted to working only in these facilities during their term of employment.

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Lord Mendelsohn: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment (1) ministers, (2) theJoint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, (3) the Chief Medical Officer, and (4) the Chief Scientific Officer, have made of thestudy 'Safety and immunogenicity of one versus two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2 for patients with cancer: interim analysis of a prospective observational study', published in the Lancet Oncology on 27 April.

Lord Bethell: The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) was sent the pre-print article on the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines on cancer patients, ‘Interim results of the safety and immune-efficacy of 1 versus 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2 for cancer patients in the context of the UK vaccine priority guidelines’, on 15 March 2021, which was discussed at its meeting on 16 March 2021. The minutes of the meeting will be published in due course.No specific assessment of the article, published in the Lancet Oncology on 27 April, has been made by the Department, the Chief Medical Officer, or the Chief Scientific Officer.The Government’s approach towards COVID-19 is informed by a wide variety of scientific information that is under constant review by a variety of organisations. This particular study was referenced on page 17 of Public Health England’s (PHE) “COVID-19 vaccination: information for healthcare practitioners”, which is attached. In light of the study, the guidance states that specialists may advise their patients based on their knowledge and understanding of their immune status and likely immune response to vaccination but should also consider the risk from COVID-19 and the patient’s likelihood of exposure. PHE’s “COVID-19 vaccination: information for healthcare practitioners” is a document about the COVID-19 vaccination programme thar is intended for healthcare staff involved in delivering the programme. It includes detailed information on the background of the programme, the vaccines (as they become available), vaccine recommendations and eligibility, contraindications and precautions, and vaccine administration issues. A copy of the document is attached.Information for healthcare practitioners (pdf, 767.3KB)

Travel: Quarantine

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cases of the transmission of COVID-19 have been traced to facilities which have been designated for use for quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lord Bethell: The information requested is not held centrally.

Medical Treatments: Technology

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish the (1) remit, (2) priorities, and (3) details of the (a) leadership, (b) budget, and (c) lines of accountability, of the new Medical Technologies Directorate.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: To ask Her Majesty's Government how they plan to measure the success of the Medical Technologies Directorate.

Lord Bethell: The new Medical Technologies Directorate within the Department was announced in May 2021. The Directorate is currently at a formative stage and recruitment to roles is about to commence. Although timelines are being finalised, we expect to publish a strategy including details of the remit, priorities, leadership, budget and accountabilities in early 2022. Success criteria will be determined once the Directorate budget has been finalised and the strategy has been finalised through engagement with industry and others.